MessiWillSignForVilla

 

 

 

A mate of mine who's a Barnsley fan reckons we're going to sign Mason Holgate from them. Apparently he's a right back but can also play centre back. 18 years old.

They rate him higher than John Stones as well!! Wouldn't mind us taking a punt on him

That's exactly what my mate said too (the John Stones bit)

If thats the case how come they got 3 mill for stones and only want 1 for holgate

 

Holgate's contract expires next summer, was Stones' that close when Everton got him?

He did OK, was at CM in a 4-2-3-1, nothing special really, but the whole team was crap to be fair.

Over hit a few passes and tended to telegraph them a bit I thought, really opening up his body in the direction he was passing, though he did have some nice touches and passes. Maybe with more confidence that sort of stuff will become a little more natural looking.

Valencia will be 30 in a few weeks and will want silly money, no thank you.

In fact, no player swaps at all, cash or nothing, and if we want to sign your rejects we'll use the cash you gave us to do it.

Lol.

Always loved ya Fab, never had a bad word to say about ya...

Schweinsteiger is joining Utd according to Bild.

Pretty awesome signing for them if true!

So the new owners have regaled him with their plans when they haven't even bought the club yet? And Fox in turn has told it all to Collymore? I doubt it.

There is a lot of distance between this scenario and Fox not knowing much about a takeover.

Fox probably knows all there is to know about the takeover from Villa's side, i.e. if there is one, how close it is, chances etc., but probably doesn't know a great deal on what any potential owners plans are.

It's definitely Grealish, the picture on the OS shows his hair a little more clearly.

 

Gabby getting a hard time again.

 

Yes he frustrates, no he isn't Messi. He has though, scored some big goals for us and he actually cares about the Villa. The current squad would be weakened if he left. 

 

He can hardly be blamed for the amount of money he earns!

 

And yet this excuse didn't get handed out when Bent was being given a lot of abuse.

 

Difference is Gabby has played over 300 times for the club, came through our youth system, has always given his all for the club and is currently our highest goalscorer in the Premier League era. Yes, Gabby can be shit at times, and it is sometimes bewildering that he earns so much, but for the stated reasons quite a lot of fans give him a bit of slack, kind of rightly imo.

Although personally I think he can definitely be improved upon, especially as he ages and gets slower, but would still be sad if he left.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, what's with all this talk about Sherwood only signing British players anyway? He's never even bought a single player before as a manager so we have absolutely nothing to go on.

Your right! Adebayor is not British, though we all know he is gagging to get him here.

Do we?

Must be true he plays for his old team and the press say he is so its true surely (and don't call me Shirley)

 

 

I'm having a deja vu from the Grant Holt thread.

 

Difference is Grant Holt hadn't just been given his second period of time off due to personal problems. Which includes his brother holding a knife to his throat.

Honestly, with all the stuff going on with Adebayor, I'd be surprised if he plays football again for a long time, if ever again.Yet alone us signing him.

How is Vardy in the England squad 

Cleverley is in better goal scoring form at the minute. Does Hodgson seriously believe there are no better strikers available? Why not go for Troy Deeney or Calum Wilson if you're gonna go for someone out of left field, at least they've scored more than 5 goals 

well with arsenal drawing they cant finish 2nd so they can afford to now rest players  for final game

 

was hoping they would have to play a strong side never mind

They can't completely take their foot off the gas though, it's still possible that Utd can go above them, it would require an unlikely 7 goal swing, but considering WBA just beat Chelsea 3-0 and Man Utd have Hull at home it's not out of the question. If Arsenal want group stage CL football, they may have to field a strongish side.

Might be in the squad for Burnley according to the Brum Mail.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-rookie-could-first-9289529

Would love to see Sherwood throw a few of the youth players on to see what they're like now that we're safe.

 

 

 

 

 

As we're officially the home team in the cup final, I wonder if we'll play it in the new kit?

Good marketing opportunity as it will be globally televised.

Good idea, thats why it wont happen at Villa

Also, I'm sure dafabet would have something to say about us wearing our next kit

Why? they're contractually obligated to be on the jersey, and would be, so why would they care if it's the old one or new one?

 

 

Because their contract is up in the summer and it looks likely we'll have a new sponsor next year.

 

 And until their contract is up they'll be the sponsor on the jersey, whether it's an old jersey or a new one

 

Then why would the new sponsors want the shiny new kit to be revealed with the old sponsor on?

What a weird clause if true. Looked decent for the most part and would be good to have some decent wide options again.

Did I miss something? Is the Dafabet deal over now?

Will be in a month. We signed a 2 year deal in 2013.

Liverpool were doing the same last year for the league, it's probably easier for the clubs and council to organise it in advance and cancel than not organise it and then have to rush to do it a few days beforehand.

Although, I hope that it being revealed in the tabloids bites them in the ass like it did Liverpool

Isn't Clark 25 now? I'm really not sure he will improve much more. A decent squad player but not a first team premier league CB IMO. Vlaar and Senderos should both leave in the summer, with a quality CB brought in to play alongside Okore.

CBs don't hit their peak until late 20's - early 30's.

For instance, average age of the CB pairings for the top 4 is 28ish, and that's brought down a lot by Utd as Jones is 23 and Smalling 25. Clark has been fantastic all season and has plenty of time to improve.

As for Vlaar, he's been poor mostly all season, would be happy to see him leave and have Clark be his replacement, just need a decent back up that can challenge the starting spot.

Even Fergie would've copped criticism after Utd lost 6-1 to City a few years back!

It doesn't matter how well you're doing as a manager, it doesn't matter if you're the best manager to grace the game, if you lose 6-1 the fans are rightfully going to criticise you and question you're tactics/set up.

 

What is the cutoff point for the number of 6-1 losses we can suffer before we're allowed to criticize them?

 

You can do it whenever and how ever much you like.  Just seems strange you're so eager to do it the same day he achieved the difficult goal set for him.

 

Yeah, strange that people might want to discuss how and why we lost 6-1 on a day when we lost 6-1.

 

 

 

As we're officially the home team in the cup final, I wonder if we'll play it in the new kit?

Good marketing opportunity as it will be globally televised.

Good idea, thats why it wont happen at Villa

Also, I'm sure dafabet would have something to say about us wearing our next kit

Why? they're contractually obligated to be on the jersey, and would be, so why would they care if it's the old one or new one?

 

Because their contract is up in the summer and it looks likely we'll have a new sponsor next year.

I think Baker would have handled Pelle better (it couldn't have been worse), but if Okore was carrying an injury why wasn't Baker either starting or brought on?

 

I don't like the thought of Okore and Baker as a pairing, not until one of them becomes more of a leader/organiser.

Baker wasn't on the bench, he's injured.

We didn't concede all six because of a high line, though, did we!?

Maybe not all 6, but that's missing the point. We were set up in a way that Southampton could exploit, and they did over and over, Koeman even said so after the game and Sherwood didn't change it. Not saying Sherwood is a bad manager or that he's been shit, but it was extremely naive to set up like we did and to persist when it was so clearly not working.

 

 

Gil

Gil Gil Gil Gil

Gil Gil Gil Gil

Gil Gil

Team i would start against Burnley

I second this selection and would have a bench of : Gil Gil Gil Gil Gil

 

Manager: Gil

Assistant Manager: Gil

Goal Keeping Coach: Gil

 

Would that make us Aston Gil-la?

I'll get my coat.

How about Baker and Okore? Young pairing but plenty of pace and strength from Okore and height/strength from Baker

Both Baker and Okore seem to play off of the confidence of their partner IMO, and need a leader beside them, and I think the two of them together would probably be similar to when Clark and Baker played together last year, neither really prepared to grab the other and pull them up, and then you get performances like yesterday.

Reading all the people tearing holes in his poor tactics and inability to change things up, the way I see it, his tactics and management are a part of the reason we lost yesterday. They are also part of the reason we're in the FA Cup final and are officially safe after winning 4 of the previous 5 games.

So yesterday was terrible and frustrating, horrible to listen to let alone watch, but I'll take that after 2 months of complete revival. Without everything else he's done I'd have lost interest in football and wouldn't have bothered tuning in to the game.

True, however, it is a huge part of being a manager to be able to see when something isn't working and changing it. It's also you're job to determine what part of you're set up that the opposition will exploit the best and try to minimise that.

Yes, Sherwood has done really well so far, and his set up is a big reason why we stayed up and are in the FA Cup final, but it is naive to expect to be able to go into every game the same way and not have teams match up better and exploit you're weaknesses. In our case, a high line with slow defenders. After the first couple of goals Sherwood should have told the defence to just step back 5 or 10 yards and minimise the space behind. He didn't and we conceded 6 because of it.

We set up like that for the final, and Arsenal will tear us a new one.